Man denies charges he hacked Fed Reserve network

A Malaysian man accused of hacking into a Federal Reserve computer network and possessing stolen account data for 400,000 bank cards has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Lin Mun Poo, 32, pleaded not guilty on Monday, four days after he was indicted on four counts that included claims he hacked in to a data processor by the name of FedComp and stole information belonging to the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York Federal Credit Union and the Mercer County New Jersey Teachers’ Federal Credit Union.

When Poo was arrested in October, agents recovered a “heavily encrypted laptop computer” that included “financial account data and personal identifying information, including more than 400,000 credit card, debit card and bank account numbers,” according to documents filed in court last week.

At an arraignment on Monday before U.S. District Judge Dora L. Irizarry in Brooklyn, Poo pleaded not guilty to the charges, Bloomberg reported. He will remain in federal custody for the time being.

He was arrested on October 21, shortly after arriving at JFK Airport from Malaysia via Europe, when agents observed him selling stolen credit card numbers for $1,000 at a diner in Brooklyn. He later admitted that he traveled to the US to meet with an individual he believed would buy a large volume of stolen card numbers.

Poo stands accused of other hacking crimes. Around August 2010, he allegedly breached the network of a major Department of Defense contractor that provides systems management for military transport and other highly sensitive military operations, according to court documents. He has been indicted on one count each of access-device fraud and identity theft, and two counts of hacking.

The Federal Reserve has acknowledged an attack on its network in June but said it was only a “test” system for software and applications and that no Federal Reserve data or information was accessed or compromised. ®